{
  "slug": "playing-for-pizza",
  "title": "Playing for Pizza",
  "author": "John Grisham",
  "theme": "parma",
  "number": "03",
  "description": "An art-rich reading room for John Grisham’s Playing for Pizza: Parma, American football, verified English editions, new and used copies, library borrowing, and a spoiler-light reader’s guide.",
  "image": "/images/bookshop/playing-for-pizza.webp",
  "imageAlt": "An imagined sunlit Italian arcade with pizza on an empty trattoria table and a brown American football resting on a nearby chair.",
  "artworkTitle": "Sunday, elsewhere / Parma study",
  "kicker": "A second season. A different measure of success.",
  "heroNote": "An American quarterback in Parma. A standalone novel about playing, paying attention, and beginning again.",
  "genre": "A novel",
  "firstPublication": "2007",
  "language": "English",
  "checked": "2026-10-02",
  "checkedLabel": "October 2, 2026",
  "introTitle": "A familiar game. An unfamiliar life.",
  "intro": [
    "Rick Dockery's NFL career has collapsed. The next team willing to take a chance on him is in Parma, Italy, where a familiar game comes with an unfamiliar language and a new way of living. Grisham turns the displaced quarterback's arrival into a warm, comic invitation to reconsider what makes a life worth playing for.",
    "This is American football: quarterbacks, helmets, and touchdowns. Rick joins the Parma Panthers in Italy. Away from Grisham’s courtroom fiction, the novel offers another entrance to his work: a player abroad, a team to understand, and a place to discover. Read Parma through Rick’s initially limited viewpoint, and notice what asks him to slow down."
  ],
  "introSources": [
    "author",
    "publisher"
  ],
  "facts": [
    {
      "label": "First published",
      "value": "2007"
    },
    {
      "label": "Form",
      "value": "Standalone sports novel"
    },
    {
      "label": "Original language",
      "value": "English"
    },
    {
      "label": "Translator",
      "value": "Not applicable"
    }
  ],
  "cards": [
    {
      "id": "pizza-paperback",
      "label": "The everyday reading copy",
      "title": "Trade paperback",
      "kinds": [
        "new",
        "used",
        "borrow"
      ],
      "format": "Trade paperback",
      "publisher": "Vintage",
      "isbn": "9780385344005",
      "editionDate": "2011-08-23",
      "length": "272 pages (publisher record)",
      "why": "Choose the paperback for a portable reading copy or a book-club table.",
      "note": "No added introduction or reading guide is verified. Match the ISBN before choosing a copy; cover design and seller condition may vary.",
      "source": "https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/72144/playing-for-pizza-by-john-grisham/",
      "routes": [
        {
          "kind": "new",
          "label": "See new paperback options",
          "url": "https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/playing-for-pizza-john-grisham/1100289991",
          "note": "Choose the matching format and confirm the ISBN with the retailer."
        },
        {
          "kind": "used",
          "label": "Compare used copies by ISBN",
          "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780385344005/n/100121502",
          "note": "Check each seller’s edition, condition, and delivery details."
        },
        {
          "kind": "borrow",
          "label": "Search your library via WorldCat",
          "url": "https://search.worldcat.org/",
          "note": "Paste ISBN 9780385344005 or search the title and author. This is a catalog search portal, not a verified local holding."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "pizza-hardcover",
      "label": "The original US hardcover format",
      "title": "Hardcover",
      "kinds": [
        "new",
        "used",
        "borrow"
      ],
      "format": "Hardcover",
      "publisher": "Doubleday",
      "isbn": "9780385525008",
      "editionDate": "2007-09-24",
      "length": "272 pages (publisher record)",
      "why": "Choose a hardcover if you prefer boards or want to browse the novel's original US publication format. A listing is not proof of a first printing or a collectible copy.",
      "note": "No added introduction or reading guide is verified. Some retailers list 262 pages; this guide follows the publisher’s 272-page record. A hardcover listing does not establish a first printing.",
      "source": "https://www.penguinrandomhouseretail.com/book/?isbn=9780385525008",
      "routes": [
        {
          "kind": "new",
          "label": "See new options · choose hardcover",
          "url": "https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/playing-for-pizza-john-grisham/1100289991",
          "note": "Choose the matching format and confirm the ISBN with the retailer."
        },
        {
          "kind": "used",
          "label": "Compare used copies by ISBN",
          "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780385525008/n/100121502",
          "note": "Check each seller’s edition, condition, and delivery details."
        },
        {
          "kind": "borrow",
          "label": "Search your library via WorldCat",
          "url": "https://search.worldcat.org/",
          "note": "Paste ISBN 9780385525008 or search the title and author. This is a catalog search portal, not a verified local holding."
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "borrowRoutes": [
    {
      "label": "Find the ebook through your library",
      "url": "https://www.overdrive.com/media/318606/playing-for-pizza",
      "text": "The verified OverDrive title record offers a route to participating libraries. Use your library's Libby catalog to check access; a library card, a local license, or a waitlist may apply."
    },
    {
      "label": "Find a print copy near you",
      "url": "https://search.worldcat.org/",
      "text": "Search the title and author, or paste one of the ISBNs above. Follow the holding library's catalog and ask about reservations or interlibrary loan."
    }
  ],
  "borrowNote": "The two print cards identify English editions of the same novel, not different translations. The OverDrive ebook link is a title-specific licensed borrowing route, rather than a third print edition. Your library’s collection, card eligibility, and waitlists determine access.",
  "pathways": [
    {
      "number": "A",
      "label": "The game",
      "title": "Read for the game",
      "text": "Follow the difference between a player's reputation and what a team needs from him. Keep a note of the moments when the scale of the game changes his expectations.",
      "link": {
        "label": "Choose a reading copy",
        "url": "#copies"
      }
    },
    {
      "number": "B",
      "label": "The place",
      "title": "Read for the place",
      "text": "Pay attention to what Rick understands quickly and what asks him to slow down. Notice the daily rituals through which a new city becomes legible.",
      "link": {
        "label": "Visit the official book page",
        "url": "https://jgrisham.com/playing-for-pizza"
      }
    },
    {
      "number": "C",
      "label": "The conversation",
      "title": "Read together",
      "text": "Start with one spoiler-light question: what do we carry with us when our old definition of success stops working? Open the discussion guide only after reading.",
      "link": {
        "label": "Find the optional guide",
        "url": "#guide"
      }
    }
  ],
  "guideIntro": "Stay with the arrival and its comic disorientation first. The panels below are for readers ready to discuss later events, the ending, and the choices that change a life.",
  "themes": [
    {
      "title": "Success at another scale",
      "text": "Consider whether status, useful work, and satisfaction move together or pull apart."
    },
    {
      "title": "Belonging as practice",
      "text": "Look at the part played by attention, hospitality, and repeated shared activities."
    },
    {
      "title": "Sport as pleasure and obligation",
      "text": "Ask what remains when the rewards attached to a sport change."
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "Where does Rick's definition of success begin to change? Which scene makes that change convincing to you?",
    "How do the teammates' reasons for playing challenge Rick's assumptions about the game?",
    "Choose a meal or a conversation. What does the scene accomplish that a game scene could not?",
    "When does the comedy invite us to sympathize with Rick, and when does it ask us to question him?",
    "How does the novel distinguish being welcomed from making the effort to belong?",
    "Does the ending resolve Rick's problem, redefine it, or leave a useful tension? Support your answer with a scene."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "author",
      "label": "John Grisham — official book page",
      "url": "https://jgrisham.com/playing-for-pizza",
      "type": "primary author/publisher",
      "note": "Title, author, spoiler-light premise, Parma Panthers, American football, authorized excerpt/audio-sample destination"
    },
    {
      "id": "publisher",
      "label": "Penguin Random House — paperback and formats",
      "url": "https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/72144/playing-for-pizza-by-john-grisham/",
      "type": "primary publisher",
      "note": "Vintage paperback ISBN/date/page count, hardcover date, audio duration, premise"
    },
    {
      "id": "pizza-source-2",
      "label": "Penguin Random House Retail — hardcover",
      "url": "https://www.penguinrandomhouseretail.com/book/?isbn=9780385525008",
      "type": "primary publisher",
      "note": "Doubleday hardcover ISBN/date/page count"
    },
    {
      "id": "pizza-source-3",
      "label": "OverDrive — library ebook record",
      "url": "https://www.overdrive.com/media/318606/playing-for-pizza",
      "type": "primary library-platform catalog",
      "note": "Title-specific licensed digital borrowing route"
    },
    {
      "id": "pizza-source-4",
      "label": "WorldCat — global library catalog",
      "url": "https://search.worldcat.org/",
      "type": "primary catalog provider",
      "note": "Library search portal; does not establish local availability"
    },
    {
      "id": "pizza-source-5",
      "label": "AbeBooks — paperback used ISBN search",
      "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780385344005/n/100121502",
      "type": "Bookseller · used routes",
      "note": "Verified used-search route for this ISBN; no price or stock copied"
    },
    {
      "id": "pizza-source-6",
      "label": "AbeBooks — hardcover used ISBN search",
      "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780385525008/n/100121502",
      "type": "Bookseller · used routes",
      "note": "Verified used-search route for this ISBN; no price or stock copied"
    },
    {
      "id": "pizza-source-7",
      "label": "Barnes & Noble — new-copy formats",
      "url": "https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/playing-for-pizza-john-grisham/1100289991",
      "type": "Bookseller · new routes",
      "note": "Title-specific new-copy destination with paperback and hardcover formats; availability must be checked there"
    }
  ],
  "rightsNote": "Synopsis, pathways, themes, and questions are original editorial copy. Visit the official author and publisher pages for authorized samples and the actual edition covers. This modern novel is offered through bookseller and licensed-library routes; no public-domain full text is claimed.",
  "sibling": {
    "title": "Den of Thieves · James B. Stewart",
    "path": "/books/den-of-thieves/"
  },
  "canonical": "https://pointcast.xyz/books/playing-for-pizza/",
  "artworkProvenance": "/images/bookshop/provenance.json",
  "commerce": "External discovery links only. No PointCast stock, checkout, payment, fulfilment, or guaranteed availability.",
  "quotationsUsed": 0,
  "reproducedBookText": false,
  "artworkIsOfficialCover": false
}